Assemblyman Pat Nolan

Thank you for your coverage of the Nolan and Hill indictments (April 28). So Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) feels he is being indicted for political reasons. True, it is hardly a coincidence that three short months after the Democrats take over the Justice Department, two Republicans are indicted. But then, justice was hardly blind to politics during the Bush Administration when only Democrats were being indicted for charges stemming from the same FBI sting operation. Come on, Pat, turnabout is fair play.

After serving two years of a 33-month prison sentence for racketeering, former Glendale Assemblyman Pat Nolan has been transferred to a halfway house in Sacramento as a first step toward his release from custody, officials said Friday. Nolan was moved to Sacramento from the Geiger Corrections Center in Spokane, Wash., and is scheduled to be released Aug. 27.

I am a former Republican candidate for the Legislature. I always pride myself in being able to represent the party as "the party of low taxes." So when I read of the plan by state Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) and Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) to offer us a 25% increase (8 cents per gallon) in our gasoline taxes, I was both distressed and outraged. Nolan was elected, and continues to be elected, because of his professed conservative principles. We already put up with his playing footsie with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco)

What nonsense to presume that a man of Gil Ferguson's integrity would be plotting with California traitors Paul Horcher and Willie Brown to defeat the Republican leadership in the Assembly. It is much more conceivable that these are rumors being generated by Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Placentia), good friend of former Assemblyman Pat Nolan and state Sen. Frank Hill who are both behind bars for their own political chicanery. And it's known by many that Ross has fantasies of beating Ferguson in the next race for Marian Bergeson's Senate seat--a good motive to start slinging mud at Ferguson.

The lament that it's "like a death in the family," by supporters of Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), in response to his guilty plea, and their statement ". . . he's incorruptible" (Feb. 19) fill me with wonder at what other kinds of behavior some Republicans will applaud in their legislators. For instance, all Republican assemblymen (except one) supported Nolan who, in his sworn statement filed with the court, conducted his Assembly office as a "racketeering enterprise" for extorting campaign contributions from those who sought his support on legislation.

So our esteemed Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) thinks that teaching kids about AIDS (Part I, Aug. 28) is giving them "a lesson in homosexual sex." If we follow Nolan's logic, then I suppose we should be opposed to educating our teen-agers about the dangers of drunk driving for fear that they will become alcoholics; and God forbid we should support Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" program because obviously it will turn our children into junkies. This backwards attitude typifies the efforts of the close-minded right to politicize the AIDS issue through fear.

What nonsense to presume that a man of Gil Ferguson's integrity would be plotting with California traitors Paul Horcher and Willie Brown to defeat the Republican leadership in the Assembly. It is much more conceivable that these are rumors being generated by Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Placentia), good friend of former Assemblyman Pat Nolan and state Sen. Frank Hill who are both behind bars for their own political chicanery. And it's known by many that Ross has fantasies of beating Ferguson in the next race for Marian Bergeson's Senate seat--a good motive to start slinging mud at Ferguson.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan, facing federal charges stemming from the FBI's Capitol sting, raised nearly $250,000 in the two months after he was indicted and paid most of it to his defense lawyer, state records show. Nolan, 42, a Glendale Republican and former Assembly minority leader, was indicted April 27 on charges of money laundering, extortion, conspiracy and racketeering. He was accused of extorting campaign contributions in return for action on pending legislation.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan, facing federal charges stemming from the FBI's Capitol sting, raised nearly $250,000 in the two months after he was indicted and paid most of it to his defense lawyer, state records show. Nolan, 42, a Glendale Republican and former Assembly minority leader, was indicted April 27 on charges of money laundering, extortion, conspiracy and racketeering. He was accused of extorting campaign contributions in return for action on pending legislation.

The California State Bar has opened an investigation into possible ethical violations by Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) in connection with the forgery of former President Ronald Reagan's signature on campaign letters in 1986. Rick Harker, the State Bar's assistant chief trial counsel in San Francisco, said Monday that Nolan, a lawyer, took "an oath and has the duty to obey all laws . . . and not to do anything deceitful or dishonest. And that's something we're looking at." Nolan said he did not have a reaction to the investigation because "they haven't contacted me. So how could I have a reaction?"

Not long before he went to prison for political corruption in March, former Assemblyman Pat Nolan defiantly told a crowd of supporters at a Burbank hotel that although he would be locked up, "they are not going to shut me up." He wasn't kidding. With a barrage of newsletters and phone calls from his prison digs, Nolan has stayed in close touch with Republican activists in the Glendale-Burbank area he formerly represented, offering political advice and divulging chatty tidbits about his family.

The lament that it's "like a death in the family," by supporters of Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), in response to his guilty plea, and their statement ". . . he's incorruptible" (Feb. 19) fill me with wonder at what other kinds of behavior some Republicans will applaud in their legislators. For instance, all Republican assemblymen (except one) supported Nolan who, in his sworn statement filed with the court, conducted his Assembly office as a "racketeering enterprise" for extorting campaign contributions from those who sought his support on legislation.

A week after he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, a tearful former Assemblyman Pat Nolan protested his innocence before a roomful of emotional supporters in Burbank on Thursday night, walking them through the FBI's recorded evidence against him. Surrounded by about 170 backers at a Holiday Inn, Nolan said: "I'm going to do my time, but they are not going to shut me up."

Still protesting his innocence a week after he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, a tearful former Assemblyman Pat Nolan presented the case for his defense to a roomful of emotional supporters Thursday night, walking them through the FBI's own recorded evidence against him.

The politically charged issue of immigration was tossed onto already complex earthquake relief efforts Friday, when two Republican legislators from Southern California publicly called on federal and state authorities to cut off assistance to illegal immigrants. Critics immediately condemned the officeholders' suggestion as the latest eruption of immigrant-bashing and political manipulation of the immigration issue.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan, facing federal charges stemming from the FBI's Capitol sting, raised nearly $250,000 in the two months after he was indicted and paid most of it to his defense lawyer, state records show. Nolan, 42, a Glendale Republican and former Assembly minority leader, was indicted April 27 on charges of money laundering, extortion, conspiracy and racketeering. He was accused of extorting campaign contributions in return for action on pending legislation.

A week after he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, a tearful former Assemblyman Pat Nolan protested his innocence before a roomful of emotional supporters in Burbank on Thursday night, walking them through the FBI's recorded evidence against him. Surrounded by about 170 backers at a Holiday Inn, Nolan said: "I'm going to do my time, but they are not going to shut me up."

It ended as Glendale Republican election campaigns are supposed to end, in a high-spirited party at the Verdugo Club, hangout of the city's business and political set. Once again, 41st District Assemblyman Pat Nolan had whisked aside a Democratic challenger, this time beating Jeanette Mann by a 55% to 39% margin. But, unlike Nolan's victories of the recent past, this one was built on a long and carefully executed campaign designed to counter the stigma of a threatened federal indictment.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan, facing federal charges stemming from the FBI's Capitol sting, raised nearly $250,000 in the two months after he was indicted and paid most of it to his defense lawyer, state records show. Nolan, 42, a Glendale Republican and former Assembly minority leader, was indicted April 27 on charges of money laundering, extortion, conspiracy and racketeering. He was accused of extorting campaign contributions in return for action on pending legislation.

Thank you for your coverage of the Nolan and Hill indictments (April 28). So Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) feels he is being indicted for political reasons. True, it is hardly a coincidence that three short months after the Democrats take over the Justice Department, two Republicans are indicted. But then, justice was hardly blind to politics during the Bush Administration when only Democrats were being indicted for charges stemming from the same FBI sting operation. Come on, Pat, turnabout is fair play.